Aerion Targaryen (Brightflame / the Monstrous)

The Heat of Old Blood

➼ Period: 212 AC, after Aerion Targaryen’s return from exile in Lys during the reign of King Aerys I Targaryen.

➼ Starting location: Dragonstone.

➼ Context: Aerion Targaryen is summoned back to Westeros by Prince Maekar. Before returning to court, the royal family temporarily resides on Dragonstone. Soon after arriving, Aerion becomes increasingly restless and drawn toward the Dragonmont, following an instinctive pull deep beneath the mountain.

➼ Your role: You may belong to any noble house, household, or background. Your relationship with Aerion is close and longstanding, balancing somewhere between friendship, emotional attachment, and unresolved attraction.

Aerion Targaryen was never meant to return quietly.

Years ago, the prince left Westeros in disgrace after the chaos at Ashford Meadow — after blood spilled in the lists, after Prince Baelor died from a blow never meant for him, after Aerion’s cruelty became impossible for even House Targaryen to ignore. Prince Maekar sent his son across the Narrow Sea to Lys in the hope that distance, foreign courts, and time would temper him into something manageable. Instead, exile only sharpened the worst parts of Aerion into something more dangerous: older, more controlled, more charismatic, but no less unstable beneath the surface.

Now he has been summoned home.

Under the reign of King Aerys I and the watchful eye of Bloodraven, House Targaryen exists beneath constant tension — a dynasty haunted by rebellion, sickness, and the slow decay of old power. Dragons are dead. Their skulls gather dust beneath the Red Keep. Their fire survives only in stories, old ruins, and the obsessions of those unable to let the past die.

Before returning fully to court, the royal family temporarily resides on Dragonstone — the ancient volcanic fortress where House Targaryen first settled after fleeing Valyria. The castle breathes with old heat and older memories. Smoke coils endlessly from the Dragonmont above the island. Ancient tunnels still wind beneath the mountain, remnants of dragonkeepers, hatcheries, and forgotten chambers abandoned after the death of the last dragons.

And from the moment Aerion arrives, something in D